Artist reception at New Haven Public Library Saturday

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
Elisa Vegliante: Faith Heels: The Hallelujah Gang
May 23—June 20, 2008
Artist's reception: Sat., May 31, 2:30—4:30 p.m.

Press release

Elisa Vegliante refers to her style of painting as "Mondo Expressionism," which can be roughly translated as "Beyond 'The Scream.'" Reaching for words to describe her massive, iconoclastic body of work, clichés like "poignant", "provocative" and other recycled expletives are impotent and absurd. Even vaguely accurate descriptors "weighty and kinetic," "harrowing yet soulful," "anxious and exuberant" fall short. Each of Vegliante's provocative paintings is a complete narrative statement unto itself. Each piece disavows us of any conventional response, nor does it seek audience approval. Within that enormous milieu of artists that are seeking the critic's eye, Vegliante will not be found, as she courts noone. Instead, she earnestly paints our collective subconscious in every conceivable psycho-social situation, focusing especially on all to which society "turns a blind eye". Elisa paints compulsively, as though by doing so she might neutralize their effects on her psyche.


Therefore, one might ask if Ms. Vegliante's work is intended to enlighten or offend, to educate or ostracize? Is she attacking contemporary society or merely observing it? The explosive vitality of her work seems to draw from a simple, child-like honesty, devoid of the need to judge, mentioning simply that "the Emperor doesn't appear to be wearing any clothes"...

Artist/film-maker Bob Cant ponders further: "Vegliante's bold and shameless paintings bear witness to her confidence in their intrinsic aesthetic value. When no doubt she is someday "discovered," it will be much to her own amazement, because she is well aware that the brutal farce of our impoverished culture is more palatable when embellished than when exposed via her confrontational, haunting narratives of "the other world," that world being all which is cruel, unjust, absurd, and most importantly, unaddressed in this pathologically repressed culture."

There will be an artist's reception for this show on Sat., May 31, from 2:30—4:30 p.m.